Skip to main content

Pulse Polio Immunisation

Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is a viral paralytic disease. The causative agent, a virus called poliovirus (PV), enters the body orally, infecting the intestinal wall. It may proceed to the blood stream and into the central nervous system leading to muscle weakness and often paralysis.

The National Polio Surveillance Project is a collaborative project of Govt. of India & the World Health Organization and managed by the latter. Currently a team of more than 250 Surveillance Medical Officer (SMO), Sub-Regional Coordinator (SRC) and Regional Coordinator (RC) are spread across the country who comprise the field staff of project. They are supported by a network of 9 Polio National Laboratories, which undertake the Virological Investigation of AFP (Acute Flaccid Paralysis) cases. The National Polio Surveillance Unit (NPSU) provides logistical & technical backup to the field staff.


Pulse Polio immunization programme were conducted on April 9 and May 21 in India. Around 30 lakh children, below the age of five years in the State of Kerala, were administered oral polio vaccine as part of the programme. 23,572 booths have been prepared across the State for the purpose. About 50,000 trained health volunteers helped with the administration of the oral vaccine. Booths were set up at the railway stations, bus stands and the airports for the convenience of those who might be traveling. Mobile polio booths were also arranged. Visit http://www.polioeradication.org/ for further information on Polio.


I was fortunate to get the opportunity to work as a Surveillance Medical Officer (Independent District Monitors on behalf of WHO) for the region of Neyyattinkara. It consists of the blocks of Parassala, Athiyannoor, Perunkadavila and Vellarada. 1st day : 21 - 5 - 2006Booth Monitoring. I could monitor about 31 booths and in addition 3 transit booths. 2nd day : 22 - 5 - 2006House to house monitoringIn Athiyannoor and Perunkadavila blocks 3rd day : 23 - 5 - 2006House to house monitoringIn Parassala and Vellarada blocks 4th day : 24 - 5 - 2006Street and transit site monitoring and interview of children The experience I got from this monitoring activity was really an eye opener for me. The whole exercise was so well coordinated even in the limited facilites available. The magnitude of the work done and the selflessness of the volunteers was something to be appreciated.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Amazing animations in biochemistry

How many times have you wished to visualize structure of the cell, DNA replication, photosynthesis or Krebs cycle in action? Johnkyrk.com offers amazing animations in cell biology and biochemistry. The animations are of high quality and don't require any extra plugins and loaded easily in my Opera browser. I just wish that the site adds more animations from more topics so that medical education becomes more enjoyable. You can access the site in 5 different languages. Tags: animations , biochemistry , raman

BSNL GPRS Settings - what worked for me

The following are the BSNL GPRS activation settings in South India at the time of writing this blog post. To activate GPRS Post Paid Customers should send the following SMS to 53733 1. GPRS199 – Rs 199/month; unlimited usage 2. GPRS49 – Rs 49/month; After 5 MB usage, each 10 KB costs 3 paise 3. GPRSF – No monthly fee; each 10 KB costs 5 paise Pre Paid customers should send the following SMS to 53733 GPRSPRE – each KB costs 2 paise To deactivate GPRS facility: Send the following SMS to 53733 GPRSD Activate the automatic GPRS settings: Visit http://218.248.72.246/msp/html OR SMS the following to 58355 MODEL MAKE e.g. NOKIA 6070 BSNL INTERNET Settings: (This is what enabled internet access for my mobile applications) 1. Select Settings from Menu > Settings >Configuration>Personal configuration settings>Options>Add new>Access point 2. Connection name: BSNL GPRS 3. Data bearer: GPRS 4. Access point name: gprssouth.cellone.in 5. User name:

RxPG - A great forum for medical students

The best internet meeting place for Indian medical students is undoubtedly RxPG Online . It claims to be the largest community website for medical students on the web which in my opinion is right at least in the Indian context. The website features extremely vibrant forums and discuss about almost all postgraduate medical tests. The forums are well moderated and the news team keeps the members updated about any news relevant to the medical students. There are many useful free downloads and tools which are helpful to any medical student aspiring for PG medical education. It is a nice resource to keep in touch with fellow students and also to relax by participating in the conversation threads in the Offbeat section. Tags: Raman , rxpg , forums